Additional use cases for generic representative abstraction

Identify additional use cases for abstracting representative-selection constructions from connected components to the generic quotient type fQuot rf, in order to determine the appropriate formulation and location of a reusable abstraction in mathlib.

Background

The paper discusses several formulations for selecting one representative from each connected component. The most generic formulation abstracts from the graph-theoretic type of connected components to the quotient type fQuot rf, but this abstraction was rejected for inclusion because its usefulness and potential for misuse in other contexts were unclear.

The authors explicitly leave unresolved which other parts of mathlib would benefit from this abstraction. The answer would influence both the design of the generic definition and whether it belongs in the combinatorics portion of the library or in a more general fDataf namespace. The paper suggests that search tools such as Loogle or LeanSearch might help discover relevant instances, but does not resolve the issue.

References

The remaining question is: What are the other use cases? Depending on where they are, this would inspire the formulation and location of the abstract version.

Tutte's theorem as an educational formalization project  (2504.18146 - Otte, 25 Apr 2025) in Section 4.3, “Example: Abstraction of representatives”